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Beginning in 1954, Winnipeg had one television station, government-owned CBWT Channel 4. In January 1960, the Canadian Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) held public hearings in Winnipeg in response to three applications which had been submitted to operate a commercial television station on channel 7. These applications were presented by R. S. Misener and Associates, a group associated with radio stations CKY Winnipeg, CFAM Altona and CKSBSt. Boniface; Perimeter Television Broadcasters Ltd., a group associated with Winnipeg radio station CJOB; and the Red River Television Association, a group associated with the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper and radio station CKRC.[1]

In 1973, CKY used this logo and promotional campaign, after its call letters were changed from CJAY.

The Misener application was subsequently approved by the BBG, and the TV station was founded as independent stationCJAY on November 12, 1960. It joined the CTV Television Network when it launched on October 1, 1961.

On June 1, 1973, after Moffat bought controlling interest in the station, its call sign was changed to CKY-TV to match Moffat's AM and FM stations, making it one of the only two Canadian television stations, the other being the now-defunct CKX-TV, with a three-letter call sign. (From 2007 to 2009, CKY-TV and CKX-TV were sister stations following CTVglobemedia's buyout of CHUM Limited.)

In the Fall of 1973, CKY-TV was using this logo and promotional campaign.

CKY's former logo (2001-2005). As of October 2005 logos with the stations' call signs are no longer used on CTV stations; instead they all use the main CTV logo.

In August 1992, general manager Vaughn Tozer hired Jim Wicks, a Canadian-American broadcaster, to be the main news anchor and managing editor. Tozer and Wicks reorganized the newsroom and the on-air team to help accomplish their goal. Within three ratings periods, the newscast had climbed from third place to first place, replacing CBWT's 24 Hours as the highest-rated newscast in Winnipeg. At one point, the newscast was advertised on billboards throughout the city as "Wicks at 6." The on-air chemistry between Wicks and sports director Steve Vogelsang added to the popularity of the program.

Although the personalities have since changed on several occasions, the station's newscast has remained Manitoba's #1 newscast, increasing its lead in recent years due in part to the demise of CHMI's newscasts and budget cuts at CBWT. Currently, CKY-TV is the market's only station with a weekday noon newscast. As of today, CKY-TV is the oldest private television station in Manitoba since CKX-TV's demise.

Current CKY-TV facilities in the renovated Powerhouse Building on Graham Avenue.

On May 15, 2006, the station's studios moved to a new facility near Winnipeg's MTS Centre. This move was prompted by economic development in the area, including the Polo Park Shopping Centre, and the likelihood that CKY-TV's studios would be bought off by developers to use the property for additional retail space. The demolition of Winnipeg Arena and the possible development of a new football stadium to replace Canad Inns Stadium would have likely placed the broadcasting facility in a position of being surrounded by retail developments.

CKY-TV's new studios use state-of-the-art technology, and little was moved from the old studios to the new facility. The existing news set was moved to CFQC, the CTV affiliate in Saskatoon, and some technical equipment was sent to CTV's Quebec City bureau. In addition, the master control of the station was moved to 9 Channel Nine Court, home of flagship CTV station CFTO-TV in Toronto.

Another likely reason for the move is that CKY-TV had more space than it needed. With WTN, CITI-FM and CKY-FM moving to new studios in recent years, plus the reduction of local, in-studio programming on CKY-TV since 1991, a new, although smaller, facility suited CKY-TV's needs. In recent years, CKY-TV has allowed studio space to be rented for third-party productions, including the locally produced film Blue State.

At midnight on September 1, 2011, the day after Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory markets transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts, CKY-TV flash cut its digital signal into operation on VHF Channel 7.[4] The station's high definition feed is now offered on Bell TV via channel 1091 as of September 12, 2011.

* These and a long list of CTV rebroadcasters nationwide were to shut down on or before August 31, 2009, as part of a political dispute with Canadian authorities on paid fee-for-carriage requirements for cable television operators.[5] A subsequent change in ownership assigned full control of CTVglobemedia to Bell Media. As of 2016, these transmitters remain in normal licensed broadcast operation.[6]

On February 11, 2016, Bell Media applied for its regular license renewals, which included applications to delete a long list of transmitters, including CKYB-TV-1 and CKYS-TV. Bell Media's rationale for deleting these analog repeaters is below:

"We are electing to delete these analog transmitters from the main licence with which they are associated. These analog transmitters generate no incremental revenue, attract little to no viewership given the growth of BDU or DTH subscriptions and are costly to maintain, repair or replace. In addition, none of the highlighted transmitters offer any programming that differs from the main channels. The Commission has determined that broadcasters may elect to shut down transmitters but will lose certain regulatory privileges (distribution on the basic service, the ability to request simultaneous substitution) as noted in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015-24, Over-the-air transmission of television signals and local programming. We are fully aware of the loss of these regulatory privileges as a result of any transmitter shutdown."

At the same time, Bell Media applied to convert the licenses of CTV Two Atlantic (formerly ASN) and CTV Two Alberta (formerly ACCESS) from satellite-to-cable undertakings into television stations without transmitters (similar to cable-only network affiliates in the United States), and to reduce the level of educational content on CTV Two Alberta.[7][8]

As Manitoba is in the Central Time Zone, CKY-TV generally abides by the U.S. practice of airing primetime programming simultaneously with its counterparts in the Eastern Time Zone, meaning one hour "earlier" in terms of local time than Eastern Time stations (e.g. "8 p.m., 7 Central"). This is primarily to maintain simultaneous substitution rights with the American network affiliates aired on cable in Winnipeg. However, the station's daytime and late night schedule is otherwise generally the same as other CTV stations in terms of local airtimes, such as local news from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., and CTV National News at 11:00 p.m. (whereas U.S. stations in the Central Time Zone typically air late news at 10:00 p.m.). To accommodate both practices, programs that air in the 7:00 p.m. hour on most CTV stations, such as etalk and repeats of The Big Bang Theory, are generally moved to the 10:00 p.m. hour on CKY-TV.

Prior to CTV's purchase of the station in 2001, this shifting of primetime programming normally extended to the 7:00 ET / 6:00 CT hour on Sundays, in line with the practice of American broadcast networks. This meant a local newscast would air at 5:30, followed by primetime, then an extra local newscast at 10:00 p.m. Since 2001, CKY-TV has usually aired local news at 6:00 seven nights a week, including Sundays, regardless of the station's ability to simsub at that hour, with programming rescheduled as needed to air within the 7-11 p.m. CT block.

CKY-DT presently broadcasts 28 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays, and 90 minutes each on Saturdays and Sundays). When CKY-TV launched as CJAY, its broadcast day ran from 5:30 p.m. until around midnight daily. Its local newscasts were originally broadcast from 7:15 to 7:30, and 10:30 to 10:55 p.m. each weeknight. The early newscast was part of a longer program known as Panorama 7, which ran from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and consisted of cartoons and other children's features, a weather report and news. As of October 3, 2005, the newscasts on CKY-TV are branded as CTV News.

On June 6, 2011, it was announced the longtime CKY-TV personality Sylvia Kuzyk would step down in the fall of 2011, and Colleen Bready was named her replacement. On July 26, 2011, it was announced that CKY-DT would debut a new three-hour weekday morning newscast called CTV Morning Live starting September 26, 2011, and would air from 6-9 a.m. from CKY-DT's studios, with the newscast anchored by Kris Laudien (formerly of Vancouver's CKVU-DT and Edmonton's CKEM-DT) and current CKY-DT reporter Eleanor Coopsammy.[9]